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Our solar system is full of floating space debris: Comets, meteors, asteroids and more. What are the differences that make up these various space rocks?
Asteroids are thought to have a different origin from comets, having formed inside the orbit of Jupiter rather than in the outer Solar System. [4] [5] However, the discovery of main-belt comets and active centaur minor planets has blurred the distinction between asteroids and comets.
Over 200 asteroids are known to be larger than 100 km, [45] and a survey in the infrared wavelengths has shown that the asteroid belt has between 700,000 and 1.7 million asteroids with a diameter of 1 km or more. [46] The absolute magnitudes of most of the known asteroids are between 11 and 19, with the median at about 16. [47]
Amor asteroids are further subdivided into four subgroups, depending on where their semimajor axis falls between Earth's orbit and the asteroid belt. Earth trojans, asteroids sharing Earth's orbit and gravitationally locked to it. As of 2022, two Earth trojans are known: 2010 TK 7 and 2020 XL 5. [14] Mars trojans, asteroids sharing Mars's orbit ...
Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" is beloved by scientists and laypeople alike. The proof is in a new concept developed by NASA to hop between comets and asteroids in our solar ...
In planetary astronomy, a centaur is a small Solar System body that orbits the Sun between Jupiter and Neptune and crosses the orbits of one or more of the giant planets. . Centaurs generally have unstable orbits because of this; almost all their orbits have dynamic lifetimes of only a few million years, [1] but there is one known centaur, 514107 KaŹ»epaokaŹ»awela, which may be in a stable ...
Over 200 asteroids are known to be larger than 100 km, [63] and a survey in the infrared wavelengths has shown that the asteroid belt has between 700,000 and 1.7 million asteroids with a diameter of 1 km or more. [64] The number of asteroids in the main belt steadily increases with decreasing size.
While the name is always applied to small bodies during the process of planet formation, some scientists also use the term planetesimal as a general term to refer to many small Solar System bodies – such as asteroids and comets – which are left over from the formation process.